Recently, a system of recognizing a pedestrian ahead of a vehicle and issuing a warning to a driver or automatically performing a braking control or a steering control when the vehicle is in a danger of colliding with the pedestrian in order to avoid a collision has been developed.
To properly operate the system, a rapid and accurate determination on whether an object ahead of a vehicle is a pedestrian, a vehicle, or other objects needs to be first performed.
As a method for recognizing an object ahead of a vehicle, a method of using a camera, a method of using a range sensor, and the like are currently used.
As the method of using a camera, there are a method of using an infrared camera, a method of using a stereo camera, a method of using a mono camera, and the like, and as the method of using a range sensor, there are a method of using an ultrasonic sensor, a method of using radar, a method of using laser radar, and the like.
However, the methods have a limitation of accurately and rapidly determining obstacles ahead of a vehicle.